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ELVES, DWAEFS. 449
Accounts of the creation of dwarfs will be presented in chap.
XIX. ; but they only seem to refer to the earthly form of the
black elves, not of the light.
The leading features of elvish nature seem ttf be the follow
ing :
Man s body holds a medium between those of the giant and
the elf; an elf comes as much short of human size as a giant
towers above it. All elves are imagined as small and tiny, but
the light ones as well-formed and symmetrical, the Hack as ugly
and misshapen. The former are radiant with exquisite beauty,
and wear shining garments: the AS. oelfsciene, Csedm. 109, 23.
165, 11, sheen as an elf, bright as angels, the ON. c friS sem
dlfkona, fair as elfin, express the height of female loveliness.
In Rudlieb xvii. 27 a dwarf, on being caught, calls his wife out
of the cave, she immediately appears, parva, nimis pulchra,
er
sed et auro vesteque compta/ Fornald. sog. 1, 387 has :
kunnigt i ollum fornum frasognum um ]?at folk, er dlfar hetu,
at ]mt var miklu frrSara enn onnur mankind/ The Engl. elves
are slender and puny : Falstaff (1 Henry IV. i. 4) calls Prince
Henry you starveling, you elfskin \
J>at
1 The dwarf adds to his
repulsive hue an ill-shaped body, a humped back, and coarse
clothing ; when elves and dwarfs came to be mixed up together,
the graceful figure of the one was transferred to the other,
yet sometimes the dwarfs expressly retain the blade or grey
svart i synen/ p. 457;
f
a little blade mannikin/
complexion: e
Kinderm. no. 92; (
grey mannikin/ Biisching s Woch. nachr. 1,
they attain
98. Their very height is occasionally specified : now
the stature of a four years child, 3 now they appear a great deal
drier
kume smaller, to be measured by the span or thumb :
spannen lane, gar eislidi getdn, 3
Elfenm. cxvi. ; two spans high,
Deut. sag. no. 42 a ; little wight, reht als ein dumelle lane/ a
thumb long, Altd. bl. 2, 151; ein kleinez weglin (1. wihtZw)
1 In Denmark popular belief pictures the elleJcone as young and captivating
to look at in front, but hollow at the back like a kneading-trough (Thiele 1, 118) ;
which reminds one of Dame Werlt in MHGr. poems.
2 Whether the OHG. pusilln is said of a dwarf as Graff supposes (3, 352 ; conf.
Swed. pyuling), or merely of a child, like the Lat. pusus, pusio, is a question. The
Mid. Age gave to its angels these small dimensions of elves and dwarfs : Ein
iegelich engel schinet also gestalter als ein kint in jdren vieren (years 4) in der
jugende, Tit. 5895 (Halm) ; juncliche gemalet als ein kint daz da v tinf jar (5
year) alt 1st, Berth. 184. Laurin is taken for the angel Michael ; Elberich (Otnit,
Ettm. 24) and Antilois (Ulr. Alex.) are compared to a child of four.